Filling in the gaps
by jin0uga
Summary: Hiccup's gift is one that will tie him and Astrid together, forever.


_Set after HTTYD 3. Spoilers, I guess?_

* * *

Astrid's slow stride through the village center saw her on the receiving end of numerous coy smiles. Mothers, wives, children and men wore sly upticks on the corners of their mouths, openly staring as she passed. She stopped under the shade of a half finished totem pole, carved dragon heads with wide rows of jagged teeth, and set her hands on her hips.

_Hiccup's planned something_. Her boyfriend's penchant of muttering under his breath always served up in the most inopportune times. It was a tick she simply could not train out of him – despite repeated warnings and ear tugs – for he'd been doing it since childhood and well into his teenage years. A side effect of loneliness, he once explained.

Astrid directed her gaze at the swarm of people around her, but as usual, none were forthcoming with details of Hiccup's latest shenanigans. On reflex, her head tilted upward when a shadow fell upon her. It turned out to be a cloud trailing overhead. An uneven wisp that blotted out the sun.

Stormfly loved to be buoyed in mid-air like stick and paper kites, wings buffeted by strong winds. The thought should have brought her joy. Instead, Astrid felt her contents of her stomach curdle, like forgotten stew left overnight. With a firm shake of her head, her hands fell limp at her sides, and she started walking.

She passed the forge and watched Gobber flit around the enclosed hut, filling out orders for nails, shingles, metal parts of every kind. Hiccup was nowhere to be found, and she reminded herself he wasn't the blacksmith's apprentice any longer.

The steps up the hill were steep and she climbed with ease, slowly moving up the winding staircase around newly finished homes, walls still wet with paint. The Chief's home sat on the tallest piece of flat mountain, a warm, welcoming structure with a lovingly carved Night Fury as the centre-piece. Astrid rapped her knuckles on the thick, wooden door.

"In a minute!" Someone on the other side called.

True to their word, not a second too early or too soon, the sole inhabitant of the house pulled the door open. Hiccup grinned at her, his hair unbrushed and his chin wet. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Some soot got on me."

"Soot, huh?" Astrid followed him in, her eyes lingering on dusky footprints peppered across the floorboards. "Now I wonder where that came from?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Um, the fireplace?"

"If the fireplace had a terrible terror nesting in it, sure. But since there's only logs, and it isn't lit," she gestured at the untouched fireplace, "It probably has something to do with your latest invention." Her boyfriend's expression turned sheepish, and her sleuthing instincts crowed in victory. "I knew it!"

He gave a long, drawn out groan. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"It still is," she countered. "I don't know what you made. Just that it exists."

"You're trying to make me feel better so at least that's something." Hiccup snarked. Astrid rolled her eyes when he pretended to stomp towards his workshop, a small room that doubled as his 'thinking space'. "I guess you're here for the ship plans?"

"Fishlegs wants another look at them before he passes them off to the carpenters."

Hiccup's chuckle drifted out the workshop. "He's probably out of things to do now that he finished sewing baby gronk last week." He appeared before her with leather bound documents under one arm. "Don't let him get too carried away or he'll miss dinner."

"On it, chief." Astrid leaned in to leave a soft peck on his cheek. His face turned apple red, which she found adorable. Even after the time they spent together, small affections like kisses and hugs would occasionally throw him off. It never happened in public, but when it was just the two of them, his walls were a smidge thinner. "Speaking of dinner. Are we still having our picnic?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Hiccup said, "I'll see you at the same place?"

"Grassy field on the hill's edge? Absolutely." It was her turn to blush when his hands wrapped around hers. They were large, not overly so. Hot, like the faint heat that always pulsed beneath a dragon's skin. She sometimes wondered if Hiccup was part dragon himself.

"Be seeing you m'lady," he sent her off with a cheeky wink, and Astrid couldn't stop smiling as she descended towards the rest of the village.

* * *

Hilltops and flatlands cobbled together should not have been as well received as it was, but when their previous land was a jagged rocky outcrop, lush evergreen lands were precisely what they needed. Astrid stared out over the cliff edge, wind tangling her hair into knots. Hiccup's deft fingers reached up to smooth them out, and she turned to smile at him.

"So," she started, "What's my surprise?"

"You just made this a hundred times less romantic." Hiccup shook his head when she scoffed. "It's true!"

"I can be romantic under the right circumstances."

"Yeah, sure." Hiccup grunted when bread was shoved into his mouth, reward for his sarcasm. "Dif ish goof," he mumbled between chews.

"Come on, Hiccup. Tell me already! You know I'm bad with surprises." Astrid's arms stretched above her head as she stared out into the great beyond. The night sky twinkled merrily, free of clouds, moonlight glazing treetops and dewdrops with a silvery tint.

"Close your eyes," he instructed. She obliged and covered her face with her hands. Astrid heard him stand, felt vibrations as he walked across the field. He returned after a brief span of a minute. She heard a soft thump beside her, and a warm orange glow filtered through the cracks between her fingers. She drew her them aside and gasped.

The wooden carving of Stormfly was uncannily accurate. Hiccup's pride in his artistry never ceased to amaze and her eyes traced the curve and dip of the gold spikes, googly eyes, the splotches of colour on the scaled back, visible in the faint light. "Now watch," Hiccup said as he struck a flint, setting the inside of the mouth on fire.

Astrid's heart stopped. She gaped at the ball of fire, brightly burning. She nearly tossed it out of her hands but why would she when it wasn't burning?

"How did you …?" Hiccup's smile was soft, chin stubble illuminated in the orange glow. "How in loki did you do this?

"The jaw is lined with fireproof materials." He tapped the bracelet on his wrist. Black scales jingled. "I thought about matching bracelets, but there wasn't enough for to make another one. So I came up with this idea." His lips quirked. "Surprise!"

"Hiccup." Astrid couldn't disguise the shock in her voice. "Toothless' scales are priceless. You shouldn't have wasted them on me."

His scoff was arid and dry like sandpaper. "Waste? Astrid, I love you. Nothing spent on you is _wasted_."

He mouthed the last word as if he couldn't believe it himself. Astrid gently took the statue from him, marvelling at it. Hiccup's measured stare fell upon her. He continued watching her in that way of his, silent and steady but somehow still gentle and assuring, until the fire burned out.

"I'm not a normal Viking," he said, "I don't have an ancestral sword to give you, or a fancy ring. I won't claim to be the best husband Berk would ever see … but I can definitely promise to be a husband who would make you happy."

Astrid's voice wavered like the freshly plucked string of a bow. "I knew what I was getting into when we flew through the skies on the back of a Nightfury. That hasn't changed."

"Good." His laughter was filled with relief. "Good."

Astrid leaped at him, peppering his face with kisses. Through his laughter and squeals, she knew her life was about to become a hell lot more interesting.

* * *

_AN: HTTYD3 wasn't a banger like the past two movies imo, but overall, the trilogy was pretty amazing. I wished we'd gotten to see Hiccup proposing to Astrid instead of just a quick wedding scene in the finale. Also, Adult!Hiccup was such a handsome dood like c'mon. Dreamworks, moar of him plz._


End file.
